To determine whether an email address is associated with a client or contact, PracticeMaster utilizes a cross-reference file that is updated each time you journal an email from Outlook into PracticeMaster. The cross-reference file tracks associations between a particular email address and the Client and/or Contact to whom an email to or from that address was saved. You can control this behavior using the settings for the Outlook Plug-in in PracticeMaster. When the PracticeMaster Outlook Plug-in is installed, there are a few options designed to simplify the process of journaling emails from Outlook. Two of those options determine whether the Client ID and Contact fields are automatically populated in the new journal record.
Note: The Client ID and Contact fields are handled separately in these scenarios (e.g., if the email address has a client but not a contact associated with it, then only the Client ID field will be prefilled).
In order to change these settings, you must uninstall the Outlook Plug-in, make your changes, and then reinstall the Outlook Plug-in for the changes to take effect.
To make changes to the prefill options for the Outlook Plug-in
Synchronization of records from Outlook to PracticeMaster depends on how Outlook integration is configured. If Outlook integration has been configured for automatic synchronization from Outlook to PracticeMaster, records that you add or modify in Outlook will synchronize to PracticeMaster immediately upon being saved.
If that’s not the behavior you are seeing, the first consideration is how the integration is configured. You can access the Outlook configuration settings by clicking the Maintenance menu in PracticeMaster, then pointing to Integration and selecting Outlook Synchronization.
On the Calendar tab, verify the following settings to ensure that automatic synchronization is properly configured:
If you’ve confirmed that the integration is properly configured for automatic synchronization, then verify that the status bar at the bottom of the PracticeMaster window is not displaying an “Outlook Synchronization Suspended” message. This message indicates that synchronization has been halted and user intervention is required. To resolve the suspended synchronization, click the message in the PracticeMaster status bar. You will then be prompted to perform the required action.
Most commonly, “Outlook Synchronization Suspended” messages are the result of the confirmation threshold being set too low on the Synchronization Options tab of the Outlook Synchronization window. This setting is designed to alert you when an unusually large number of records are being synchronized, and may need to be modified depending on how many records are normally added for you by other users.
If you have verified all of the above settings and the calendar items are still not synchronizing to PracticeMaster, contact Technical Support at (402) 419-2210.
PracticeMaster can integrate with any local installation of Microsoft Outlook. If you’re using Office 365, you can install Outlook locally. PracticeMaster’s integration with Outlook relies on the local mail profile and therefore should be unaffected by the location of the Exchange Server.
When integrating Calendar and/or Contact records between PracticeMaster and Outlook, Tabs3 recommends having a conversation with your IT Department or whoever will be performing the migration before migrating to a new Exchange Server. In order to plan the migration process, they will need to review our Knowledge Base Article R11731, “Exchange Migration Best Practices,” before migrating to ensure a smooth transition to the new Exchange server.
To assist in your conversation with IT, there are two important questions that need to be asked prior to migrating:
Will we still have Outlook installed locally on the same workstation as PracticeMaster?
Why this is important: PracticeMaster requires a local copy of Outlook installed on the same workstation in order to integrate. A web-based version of Outlook, or an installation on another instance of Windows will not integrate successfully.
Can you configure and include custom fields as part of the Exchange migration process?
Why this is important: PracticeMaster uses custom fields in Outlook to store information relating to PracticeMaster in Outlook records. Examples of this include:
If this information is not passed to the new Exchange server, the first time PracticeMaster is synchronized with Outlook using the new server, duplicate calendar and contact records will be synchronized back to PracticeMaster, and all of the journal, calendar, and fee information for each email will be lost.
Once you have confirmed that “yes” is the answer to both questions, you’ll need to prepare for the migration. There are two main steps you must take prior to migrating:
Additionally, we recommend that you migrate all of your firm’s users to the new Exchange server at once rather than individually or a few at a time. This prevents problems caused by users on different Exchange servers entering calendar records for each other in PracticeMaster.
Note: It is important to review our Knowledge Base Article R11731, “Exchange Migration Best Practices,” prior to migration, as this article provides complete instructions for successfully migrating your Exchange server.
When linking is enabled on the PracticeMaster toolbar in Outlook, the email and the journal record in PracticeMaster are linked. This means that after you create a journal, calendar, or fee record from an email in Outlook, clicking the Journal, Calendar, or Fee button on the toolbar again will open the record you created in PracticeMaster instead of creating a new record. By default, linking is enabled.
When linking is disabled, clicking the Journal, Calendar, or Fee button will create a new record in PracticeMaster instead of opening an existing record. This allows you to create as many records as you need per email.
You can toggle Record Linking off and on for a single email by clicking the Linking On/Linking Off button on the PracticeMaster tab while viewing the email in Outlook.
However, keep in mind that when changing the Linking status, the default settings will determine what happens to the next email. Depending on your settings, turning Linking off may mean that the next email will also default to Linking Off, or it could automatically default back to Linking On.
To configure the default behavior for Record Linking
For more information regarding the Outlook Toolbar Plug-in, see Knowledge Base Article R11516, “Configuring the Outlook Toolbar Plug-in.”
In Version 19, we added the Attach PM Document button to the PracticeMaster toolbar in Outlook. When composing an email in Outlook, this button is available on the PracticeMaster tab if the PracticeMaster toolbar is installed.
To add multiple managed documents to an outgoing email
You can now finish composing your email and send it. Keep in mind that your or the recipient’s email server may have a limit on the size of attachments that can be included with an email message.
Note: If you only need to send a single managed document to someone, you can also open the document management record in PracticeMaster and click the Send Email option in the Take Action group of the Quick Clicks pane. This will create a new email message in Outlook with the document attached. However, if you need to attach a single managed document to a reply or forwarded email, use the Attach PM Document button instead.
PracticeMaster has the ability to customize which fields synchronize with Outlook. You can select which PracticeMaster field values to display in Outlook’s Subject or Description fields for Calendar records. When synchronizing contacts to Outlook, you can select which PracticeMaster fields to map to their corresponding Outlook fields. These features make it easy to display custom calendar and contact information from PracticeMaster in Outlook.
To specify which fields are displayed in the Subject field of Outlook Calendar records
To specify which fields are displayed in the Description field of Outlook Calendar records
To specify which fields are displayed for Outlook contacts
Any changes to the field settings will trigger a Critical Synchronization. This process updates previously synchronized records to use the new settings.
PracticeMaster’s Contact integration with Outlook provides the ability to restrict which contact records synchronize between PracticeMaster and Outlook. When configuring Contact syncing, you can optionally specify to not include Outlook private contacts as well as which contacts are synced to your Outlook folder.
Common filters are based on the User/Group or the Category fields in the Contact file. Alternatively, you can create a custom filter to further narrow which contacts you want to sync to Outlook. Our example will filter contacts based on the User/Group field.
To configure contact synchronization for your User ID to integrate with Outlook
Because a critical setting was changed, you will be required to resynchronize with Outlook before continuing. If prompted to confirm changes, review the list of changes and, once satisfied with the changes, click Synchronize.
Note: If you have any questions regarding the above steps, please contact Tabs3 Technical Support at 402-419-2210 or your IT professional.
For complete information on Outlook Integration, refer to our Outlook Integration Guide at Tabs3.com/support/docs.html.
Because the calendar entries were synchronized between PracticeMaster and Outlook, the Outlook Sync Log can be used to help determine if records were deleted. The Outlook Sync Log keeps track of every add, change, or delete that passes between Outlook and PracticeMaster.
Because the Outlook Sync Log records everything that synchronizes between PracticeMaster and Outlook, it can be quite large. Fortunately, we can create a filter to help narrow down the records we want to look at.
To filter the Outlook Sync Log for deleted records
Once the filter is enabled in the Quick Clicks pane, only those records that were deleted during the sync will be shown. You can then determine if records need to be added back into PracticeMaster based on record information in the Outlook Sync Log including the calendar Description, Owner (User), and Due Date/Time.
If you do not see the record(s) you are expecting, keep in mind that it’s also possible for records to appear deleted when they were actually changed (e.g., removing a User from the record, changing the Due Date field, etc.). If you want to look for changed records, instead of deleted records, simply change the filter’s Test Value from “D” to “U” in step 6b above.
For more information on PracticeMaster’s integration with Outlook, please see our Outlook Integration Guide.
There are a few reasons the “Outlook Synchronization Suspended” message can be displayed in the PracticeMaster status bar.
The specified confirmation threshold has been exceeded.
The Outlook Synchronization confirmation threshold is used to specify the minimum number of records that will require confirmation before synchronization can proceed. The purpose of this setting is to ensure that you are alerted when an unusual number of records are being synchronized (as this can indicate a problem with your synchronization settings), without interrupting more typical synchronizations. Therefore, the ideal value will vary depending on the user.
To change the threshold
A critical Outlook Synchronization setting has been changed and therefore a critical synchronization is required.
In order to ensure the accuracy of synchronized information, a critical synchronization must be performed before any synchronization can occur after changing the settings. All other synchronization for the user will be suspended until this synchronization is performed.
A synchronization exception has occurred.
A synchronization exception is a synchronization issue that PracticeMaster cannot resolve without user intervention. Exceptions are uncommon. Refer to the “Synchronization Exceptions” section of Knowledge Base Article R11368, “Troubleshooting Outlook Calendar & Contact Integration Issues,” for more information.
Resolution
To resolve the suspended synchronization, click the “Outlook Synchronization Suspended” message in the PracticeMaster status bar. You will then be prompted to perform the required action.
For more information on PracticeMaster’s Outlook integration, refer to our Outlook Integration Guide.
The way that calendar records synchronize between PracticeMaster and Outlook depends on whether you are using Microsoft Exchange, and how System Configuration is configured.
If you are not using Microsoft Exchange, or you are but do not have System Configuration set up to take advantage of Microsoft Exchange, then the following synchronization rules apply:
If you have Microsoft Exchange, there are two settings in System Configuration that can be used to immediately synchronize calendar records for other users. The first option, Use Microsoft Exchange to synchronize PracticeMaster and Outlook, is available in both the Platinum and non-Platinum software. The second option, Enable the Platinum Exchange Connector, is available only in the Platinum software.
Non-Platinum
If you do not have the Platinum version of the software, and the option to Use Microsoft Exchange to synchronize PracticeMaster and Outlook is selected, the following synchronization rules apply:
Platinum
If you have the Platinum version of the software, and the options to Use Microsoft Exchange to synchronize PracticeMaster and Outlook and Enable the PracticeMaster Exchange Connector are selected, the following synchronization rules apply:
Note: In order for synchronization to occur with other users, both users must have Outlook calendar integration and automatic synchronization enabled in PracticeMaster. For example, if Mary is creating events in Susan’s PracticeMaster calendar, and Mary is not set up to automatically integrate calendar records with Outlook, the events Mary enters will not be synchronized to Susan’s Outlook calendar until the next periodic or manual synchronization occurs for Susan.
For information on setting up and troubleshooting integration with Microsoft Exchange, see Knowledge Base articles R11373, “Microsoft Exchange Server Overview,” R11596, “Configuring the PracticeMaster Platinum Exchange Connector,” and R11597, “Troubleshooting the PracticeMaster Platinum Exchange Connector.”
Before you can configure the toolbar to automatically journal all outgoing e-mails, you will need to install the Outlook Plug-in.
To install the PracticeMaster Outlook Plug-in
Once the Outlook Plug-in has been installed, you can specify whether new messages will be automatically journaled or not. Additionally, you can specify whether or not the records will be linked. When Linking is enabled, PracticeMaster will maintain a link between the e-mail and the Journal/Calendar/Fee record. When Linking is enabled and you try to create a PracticeMaster record from an e-mail a second time, the existing record will be opened instead. When Linking is disabled, multiple records for the same e-mail may be created.
To automatically journal outgoing e-mails
Keep in mind that these are the default settings. When sending an e-mail, you can click on the PracticeMaster tab in the new message window and select to turn Journaling and/or Linking off for this message. The next e-mail you send will revert back to the default settings.
For more information regarding the features available in PracticeMaster’s Outlook Plug-in, refer to Knowledge Base article R11516, “Configuring the PracticeMaster Outlook Plug-in.”